Creepers (18 page)

Terri cried for a short time and then the tears stopped as suddenly as they began.  She hugged Jesse and then pushed away and dried her eyes with the backs of her hands.  “I’m good Jesse,” she said at last.  “Can you call for an ambulance?  I want to sit by Jack.”

Jesse smiled a reassuring smile and said “of course child.  You go and take care of him.  I’ll make the call, and then I’ll look after Yancy until they get here.”  Jesse smiled again then went into the kitchen to use the phone.  From the kitchen Jesse said, “and then maybe you can tell me what is going on around here.”

“Thank you,” Terri said as she walked over and sat on the edge of the couch beside Jack.  “I’ll tell you what I know, but it isn’t much,” she admitted.  “In fact,” Terri continued, “I’m not quite sure what’s going on.” 

Terri turned her attention to Jack.  She picked up his hand and held it in her own.  Then she lightly rubbed one finger across his forehead.  To her surprise, Jack’s eyes moved to look at her, and he let out a small moan.  Slowly, Jack managed to blink his eyes.  He moaned again, and Terri said “Shh, don’t try to talk.”  She bent down and gently kissed his forehead.  “Shh,” she said again, “you’re safe Jack.”

“The phone’s out,” Jesse said as he came back from the kitchen.  “It looks like we’re going to have to take them to the hospital ourselves.”  He continued through the living room on his way to his bedroom to get dressed.  He didn’t wait for an answer, and there was urgency in his pace.  Whatever the situation was, it was bad.  He would just have to wait for Terri to explain it to him on the way to the hospital.

Terri looked up as Jesse passed by in a blur, his Terri cloth bathrobe billowing out behind him as he walked.  Terri had heard what Jesse said, but he was already down the hall before it registered.  The phone was dead, and she knew that she didn’t have cell service out here, so no help was coming.  She lied to herself that it was okay.  Yancy and Jack were stable.  The situation was okay.  However, deep down Terri knew the situation was not okay.  It was very far from okay.

Terri’s mind was racing.  What the hell was happening?  She’d never seen plants move that fast before, except for maybe a Venus flytrap when it closes.  She knew that kudzu had an incredible growth rate, but this, this was impossible.  Terri was struggling to wrap her head around what she had seen when Jesse came back into the room.  He was dressed, and there was concern etched upon his face.  Something that Terri had seldom seen from him.

“I’ll get the car and bring it up to the porch,” Jesse said as he picked his car keys up off the entry table.  “Then I’ll open up the rear doors and we can both work on getting these two in there.  We may need to put one in the front seat and one in the back seat.”

“Jesse,” Terri started.  She was unsure what to say next.  She thought about it a moment then continued, “You need to be careful out there.”

“Why, what’s going on?  What happened here Terri?  Did Yancy and Jack get into a fight or something?”

“A fight, yes,” she said from far away.  “But not with each other.”

Confused, Jesse pressed her.  “Then what happened?  What do I need to be careful of?”

“The vines,” Terri said at last, “the kudzu vines.”

“Do you mean the creepers?  The creeping vines on the house?” Jesse asked, even more confused.

“Yes, the creepers,” Terri said, “they, they’re alive somehow.”

“Of course they’re alive,” Jesse said.

“Not like that Jesse,” Terri tried to explain.  “They came after us.  They moved.  They did this to Yancy and to Jack.  It was the vines, the creepers.”

Jesse considered Terri for a moment.  He had never known her to tell a story, not one like this.  He had also never known her to be foolish.  Jesse figured she must be in shock.  Perhaps the hospital would be good for her as well.  He gave Terri a reassuring smile, and he said “I’ll be careful, careful of the creepers.  You just wait here until I get the car all backed up and the doors opened.  Then I will come in, and we can get these boys out of here.  Is that okay with you?”

“Okay Jesse,” Terri agreed.  “Just be careful.  And turn on the porch light so you can see.”

Jesse gave Terri a final smile then turned to the front door.  He flipped on the porch light switch and pulled the front door open.  Immediately Jesse took a step back.  The front porch was covered in slowly writhing creeping vines.  The mass was about a foot deep and stretched from the screen door to the front step, and on either side as far as the dim light would let him see.  “What…” he managed as he backed away from the screen door, his car keys dropping from his limp hand.

The leaves of the vines seemed to quiver with excitement and the vines themselves scratched at the screen.  Like some puppy, it seemed the creepers were scratching to get in.  Jesse stared in disbelief.  This couldn’t be happening.  He fully believed in God, and the miracles of God, but this was unreal.  Jesse slammed the front door and said “Tell me more about these creepers…these vines.”

“Why, what is it?” Terri asked.

“The front porch is covered with creepers,” Jesse replied, “and it, it’s moving.”  He was both concerned and confused all at the same time.

“I told you,” Terri said, “they’re alive.  Somehow the kudzu has managed to move and to hunt.  It has become carnivorous.  It did this to Yancy and Jack.”

“But how, how is that possible?  How can a plant be carnivorous?”

“There are a lot of carnivorous plants in the world, but this has to be some kind of mutation.  It has to be a lack of nutrients in the soil and maybe the ongoing drought or something.  I’m not sure, but it is the only thing I can think of.  All mutations are due to environmental factors, and the need to survive in that environment.” Terri explained.  “I’ve just never seen any mutation like this before…No one has.  These things are actually seeking out prey.  They’re hunting.”

“Hold that thought,” Jesse said with some urgency.  “I want to know more but I think I’d better check the rest of the house.  I know that most of the house has been covered by creepers long before this, so I want to know what they’re up to.  I also want to check the windows and doors.”

“That’s a good idea Jesse,” Terri admitted.  “I’ll go with you.  We can get it done twice as fast together.”

“I agree,” Jack said in a weak voice from behind them.

“God bless us,” Jesse exclaimed.

Taken aback, Terri whirled around on her heels.  “Jack!” she said in a surprised voice.  “How are you feeling?” she asked as she moved quickly to the couch.  “Can you move?  Are you in pain?” she asked.  He was still lying on his back but had managed to move one of his hands from his side up to his stomach.

“I feel like shit,” he admitted, “but a lot better than I was.  It has to be one of the weirdest things I’ve ever experienced.  I could feel everything; I just couldn’t move.  I could still see and hear too.  I heard everything you two said, but it was kind of far away and like it was in a tunnel somehow.  But I could hear it.  The worst part had to be my eyes.  I could see okay, as long as it was straight in front of me.  But I couldn’t blink at all.  That alone just about drove me crazy.”

Terri said, “that’s interesting, how the paralytic affected some of your autonomic functions but not all of them.”

“My auto-what?” Jack asked.

“You know,” Terri explained, “breathing, your heart beating, all the things your body does automatically without you having to think about it.  I have always thought that the blink reflex was autonomic too.”

“Is that important?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know,” Terri admitted, “but it is interesting.  Are you going to be okay for a minute Jack?” she asked.

“Go do what you need to, I’ll be okay.” Jack said.

“I’ll be right back,” Terri said with a smile.  “Don’t you go anywhere Jack.”

“Like I could move if I wanted to,” he said with a half grin.

Terri bent over and kissed Jack on the cheek.  He looked up at her with doleful eyes, and she gave him a warm smile.  Then Terri stood up and grabbed Jesse by the hand.  “C’mon,” she said as she led him to the kitchen.  “I’ll take the kitchen and mud room if you take the bedrooms?” she asked.

“Okay Terri,” Jesse replied, “I’ll be back in a minute.”  Jesse turned and disappeared down the dark hallway that led to the two bedrooms.

“I’ll meet you back here in a few,” Terri said after him.  She entered the kitchen and tried the phone again.  Not that she suspected Jesse was wrong, but just in case.  Terri set the dead phone back down in its cradle and turned her attention to the window over the sink.  In the quiet of the house, she could hear the scratching noise again, mixed in with the sound of leaves rustling around just outside the screen.  She moved over quickly and pulled down the sash. Then she latched the window.  Even as she did so, she saw a vine push at the screen.

Terri swallowed hard then turned to face the door that lay open to the mudroom on the side of the house.  She nervously walked into the mudroom and flipped on the light switch.  The screen door was filled with vines, and they had managed to push in at several places around the badly fitting screen door.  Panic welled up in her for a moment, and then Terri pushed it aside and launched herself toward the interior door.  She reached it in a single stride and tried to slam it, but the door could not push past the vines.

Terri tried to close the door again, and still the vines blocked the jamb.  She slammed the door again and again, breaking the vines in some places and bending them in others.  Still more and more vines seemed to appear from around the screen door.  Unsure of what to do, Terri backed out of the mudroom and pulled the door between it and the kitchen closed.  She watched as the vines pushed the side door open and slowly began to fill the mudroom. 

At first they curled up around the door knob she had been holding.  Then they grabbed onto the curtain that covered the small window in the door.  Both of these areas were areas that Terri had been touching.  Again she was mesmerized by the motion of the kudzu.  It seemed to Terri that it was either following her body heat, her perspiration or some other chemical trigger.  Terri was so engrossed in her observation of the kudzu that she hadn’t noticed Jesse come up behind her, so she jumped when he spoke.

“What is it girl?” Jesse asked.  He looked past Terri into the mudroom and his chin dropped.  “Get away from there!” he exclaimed as he pulled Terri back and away from the door.

“Its okay Jesse,” Terri said, “They’re contained.  We’re safe for now.  What about the rest of the house?” she asked.

“They were rustling around near all of the windows, but I got them shut tight and locked up.”  He considered for a moment and then added, “It’s gonna get hot in here in short order.”  Jesse rubbed the sweat off of his bald head with his hand and then wiped it on his pants.  “What do we do now?” he asked.

“Let’s get something to drink and go into the living room.” Terri offered.  “A glass of iced tea might do us all good right about now.”

***

With some help, Jack had managed to get himself up into a semi-sitting position.  Terri sat beside him on the couch, while Jesse sat in his favorite chair.  Terri held a glass of tea up for Jack, and he sipped eagerly from its bendy straw.  Still lying on the floor, Yancy would occasionally moan but nothing more.  Terri wiped the sweat from Jack’s face with a damp dishtowel of cool water.  After a brief moment of awkward silence, Jesse spoke up.

“So what do we do?  We need to get help.  They don’t move that fast; I could make it across the porch to my car and go for help.  Yancy needs a hospital.” Jesse urged.

“We can’t risk them getting a foothold like they did in the mudroom,” Terri replied.  “Besides, it only takes one scratch for them to get you with their paralytic.  No, it’s just too risky.”

“We might have a better idea of what to do if we knew what we were dealing with,” Jack said shakily.  “What can you tell us about them Terri?”

“Well,” Terri said, “I can tell you what I know, which isn’t much.  And I can tell you what I suspect, which is even less.” She admitted.

“You know better than any of us,” Jesse said.

“Okay,” Terri said.  She took a long sip of her tea then began.  “It is kudzu; I can tell you that much.  It is kudzu, but it has mutated, evolved.  It has become carnivorous somehow.  I’m sure it has to do with the soil conditions, the weather, perhaps some mutagenic chemical.  Whatever the cause, the kudzu in the area has become carnivorous.”

“How can that be?” Jesse asked.

“I don’t know,” Terri confessed.  “But if we look at other carnivorous plants we can get some clues.  A good example is the Venus flytrap; it only grows in one place on earth.  It lives in a narrow band of land in North Carolina, and nowhere else.  It is a relative of the sundew, which uses a flypaper gland to trap insects and small animals, but the Venus flytrap has evolved an even more elaborate trap system.  Its leaves snap closed and form a cage that traps the insect while it feeds.  The leaves secrete an enzyme that liquefies the internals of the insect and then it lives on the nutrients.  In fact, that’s how all carnivorous plants ‘eat’.  They liquefy the insect or animal, and then live off of the nutrients.  I’m almost positive something similar is going on here.”

“Well, how come we’ve never heard of these other plants hurting people?” Jesse pressed.

“Because they haven’t,” Terri said.  “Most carnivorous plants are small.  There are only a few that can feed on anything as large as a rat.  And none of them actively hunts.  They’re all trap plants of some sort.  Well,” she thought about it, “except for the bladderworts.  Technically they go after their prey, nymphs and tadpoles and such.”

“What’s a bladderwort?” Jesse asked.

“It is a waterborne plant that activates cells to suck in water, along with prey, when triggered.  Then it expels the water and feeds on the prey.” Terri explained.

“I had no idea there were so many types,” Jesse admitted.   “It’s a little unsettling to think of a plant that eats insects and animals…and now people.”

“What we have here is truly amazing,” Terri said.  “This kudzu seems to be actively hunting for food, seeking it out.  All other carnivorous plant species use traps.  Some, like the pitcher plant, have a large vessel with slick sides that insects and animals can’t climb out.  In the bottom of that vessel is a pool of enzymes, and they dissolve the food.  Some have sticky hairs or glues of some kind.  Some use a paralytic to trap the animal.  The plants themselves are relatively immobile, with the exception of the sundew and bladderwort species.  They wait until an insect or such trigger specialized hairs and then the trap springs.  But this…this is a unique combination, and a scale that seems impossible.”

“What does that mean Terri?” Jesse asked, stunned.  “What are you saying that we have here?”

Terri continued, “It seems to me, that for whatever reason, the kudzu in this area has evolved to be carnivorous.  It appears to be using some type of paralytic to immobilize its prey and then secretes an enzyme or acid of some type to dissolve that prey.”

“This enzyme,” Jesse asked, “is this what did the damage to Yancy’s face?”

“That could also explain the bull,” Jack said, mostly to himself.

“What bull?” Terri asked.